Monsters University: The Musical
by Julia451
Summary: Just something I scribbled for fun. Song fic. Wouldn't it be wicked if Monsters University were a musical? What songs could tell this story about two college roommates who start off completely loathing each other before becoming the greatest team there's ever been?


**Disclaimer: **Obviously, I own neither _Wicked_ nor _Monsters University_ (a.k.a _Wicked_-with-the-genders-reversed-and-a-happy-ending... which is awesome, just to be clear).

* * *

It all started because of that hat – a seemingly innocuous hat that would eventually grow into a symbol of his very nature, a critical component of his identity. Mike still remembered the day the Scarer at MI gave it to him – how impressed he'd been, how excited his praise had made him, how he tried to give it back as his class passed the Scare Floor again on their way out of the building, how he couldn't believe his luck when the monster told him he could keep it:

"_You deserve each other, this hat and you!  
__You're both so smart!  
__You deserve each other, so, here!  
__Out of the goodness of my heart!"*_

The next few years weren't easy. Mike was always an outcast, little more than a green-skinned receptacle for universal scorn, with no friends or support, constantly teased by everyone he met. He ignored them and read his books, looking forward to the day when he would prove his worth and no one would think he was strange ever again. His first night at college, he woke up in the middle of the night from an incredible dream about his future at Monsters, Inc.:

"_Unlimited...  
__My future is unlimited!  
__And I just had a vision almost like a prophecy! I know  
__It sounds truly crazy.  
__And true, the vision's hazy...  
__But I swear someday there'll be  
__An untold amount of power in our world  
__That's all because of me!"_

He knew more surely than he'd known anything in his life that he was destined for greatness here. He could see himself now, a Scarer with his own assistant, generating so much Scream Energy, they'd be the most famous pair in the history of Scaring!

"_And so it will be for the rest of my life!  
__And I'll walk up the aisles 'til I die!  
Held in such high esteem!  
__When children see me, they will scream  
__At half of MI's favorite team...  
__MICHAEL WAZOWSKI-I-I-I-I-I-I!"_

He didn't expect it to be easy. He was prepared to have to work hard. The classes, however, as demanding as they were, turned out to be the easiest part of school. The hardest thing to deal with was that arrogant snob James P. Sullivan. Mike couldn't stand anything about him, least of all the blasé attitude towards learning that he'd flaunted since the day Mike met him, telling him Scaring was something you just did with no need to study, hanging around with a bunch of other snobs who saw school as a place to loaf and party instead of studying or doing work:

"_The trouble with schools is they always try to teach the wrong lesson.  
__Believe me, I've been kicked out of enough of them to know!  
__They want ya' to become less callow, less... shallow,  
__But I say, why invite stress in?  
__Stop studying strife!  
__And learn to live the unexamined life!  
__Dancing through life!  
__Skimming the surface!  
__Gliding where turf is smooth!  
__Life's more painless  
__For the brainless!  
__Why think too hard  
__When it's so soothing  
__Dancing through life?  
__No need to tough it  
__When you can slough it off as I do!  
__Nothing matters but knowing nothing matters.  
__It's just life,  
__So keep dancing through...  
__Dancing through life,  
__Swinging and sweeping  
__And always keeping cool!  
__Life is fraughtless  
__When you're thoughtless!  
__Those who don't try  
__Never look foolish!  
__Dancing through life,  
__Mindless and careless,  
__Make sure you're where less trouble is rife!  
__Woes are fleeting, blows are glancing,  
__When you're dancing through life!"_

The whole lot of them made Mike's life miserable, but he never expected how bad things would turn. He didn't know what he was going to do when he was thrown out of the Scaring program, but he knew that he couldn't give up. He got a crazy idea for how he could fight back, but it would mean, well, fighting back. Competing in something as dangerous as the Scare Games was never his style, but he'd have to switch from books to action if he wanted to prove he was a Scarer. No matter what Dean Hardscrabble or the other students said, he vowed he wouldn't let them stop him from competing or forcing Hardscrabble to let him back in the Scaring program. He was done listening to them all tell him how limited he was as a Scarer and following all the rules for monsters like him who weren't considered "good enough." Now, he would defy them all...

"_Something has changed within me.  
__Something is not the same.  
__I'm through with playing by the rules of someone else's game!  
__Too late for second-guessing,  
__Too late to go back to sleep!  
__It's time to trust my instincts,  
__Close my eyes, and leap!  
__It's time to try defying gravity!  
__I think I'll try defying gravity!  
__And you can't pull me down!"_

Unsurprisingly, Mike's attitude did nothing to change Hardscrabble's opinion of him:

"_Can't I make you understand you're having delusions of grandeur?"_

Mike didn't care:

"_I'm through accepting limits  
_'_Cause someone says they're so!  
__Some things I cannot change,  
__But 'til I try, I'll never know!  
__Too long I've worked and waited  
__For this – well, I guess I've lost?  
__No, giving up –  
__That's much too hard, too high a cost!  
__I'd sooner buy defying gravity!  
__Kiss me good-bye, I'm defying gravity!  
__And you can't pull me down!"_

There was only one problem – he had to become roommates with the person he hated more than anyone on the planet! The only thing Mike and Sulley had in common was the depths of their hatred for each other. It was impossible to say for whom being in that dorm room with the other was a greater torture. Just looking at Mike sitting there wearing that MU hat he had no business wearing, or remembering Sulley in that stupid ROR jacket he'd gotten only because Mike caught that pig, was enough to drive them nearly insane with... with...

"_What is this feeling, so sudden and new  
__I felt the moment I laid eye on you?  
My pulse is rushing!  
__My head is reeling!  
__My face is flushing!  
__Oh, what is this feeling,  
__Fervid as a flame?  
__Does it have a name?  
__Y-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-s!  
__Loathing!  
__Unadulterated loathing!  
__For your face!  
__Your voice!  
__Your clothing!  
__Let's just say:  
__I loathe it all!  
__Every little trait, however small,  
__Makes my very flesh begin to crawl  
__With simple, utter loathing!  
__There's a strange exhilaration  
__In such total detestation!  
__It's so pure, so strong!  
__Though, I do admit, it came on fast,  
__Still, I do believe that it can last!  
__And I will be loathing, loathing you!  
__My! Whole! Life! Long!"_

The two arch rivals somehow became best friends before they even realized it – as they worked together, Mike gained Sulley's respect, and Sulley gained Mike's trust. It was a miracle that their friendship happened – yet, it didn't happen miraculously. Just when it was beginning, Sulley almost doomed it to extinction when he revealed just what extremes he was willing to go to for his ambition. Mike took his cheating at the final Scare Games event as a personal betrayal – the one person he'd grown to think he could count on more than anyone else didn't believe in him!

On the flip side, Mike made Sulley just as angry with his crazy stunt in the Door Lab – what did he think that was going to accomplish? All it did was permanently ruin any slight chance he may have had of becoming what he wanted! When he found him in the woods in the human world, Sulley couldn't restrain himself: _"Mike, why couldn't you have stayed calm for once, instead of flying off the handle?"_

"_I hope you're happy!  
__I hope you're happy now!  
__I hope you're happy how  
__You've hurt your cause forever!  
__I hope you think you're clever!"_

"_I hope __**you're**__ happy!" _Mike retorted instantly:

"_I hope you're happy, too!  
__I hope you're proud how you  
__Can stoop to cheating and deception  
__To feed your own ambition!"_

The two were still arguing...

"_So though I can't imagine how...  
__I hope you're happy! Right! Now!"_

… when the hunters came for them, prowling for the monster they feared and were determined to capture (at best), unaware they were attacking and targeting something that never meant them harm. If it hadn't been for Mike's trickery and his idea to let the hunters come for them instead of trying to run anymore, Sulley was sure they wouldn't have survived.

They did survive, but they had nowhere to go. It was Mike who first suggested they would do better if they stuck together.

"_Sulley, come with me," _he said. _"Think of what we could do – together!"_

"_Unlimited!  
__Together, we're unlimited!  
__Together, we'll be the greatest team there's ever been!  
__Dreams the way we planned 'em..."_

Before long, Sulley joined him:

"_If we work in tandem..."_

Together, they knew that...

"_There's no fight we cannot win!  
__Just you and I defying gravity!  
__With you and I defying gravity,  
__They'll never bring us down!"_

* * *

* All lyrics in italics and quotes are from the musical composed by Stephen Schwartz (phrases changed here-and-there for context).


End file.
